Deep Purple 512 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Spotted these guys just north of Oneroa on Tuesday. Would have been about 35 feet long spending most of their time deep down. Link to post Share on other sites
Fogg 427 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Nice. Wonder what they are? Humpback? Only ever seen whales 3 times in the Gulf. Link to post Share on other sites
Grinna 2 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 At a size of around 10m and looking like that, they are probably Bryde's Whales (Balaenoptera brydei). Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I was just thinking the same thing Grinna. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Baleen whales maybe?? Link to post Share on other sites
Grinna 2 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Brydes whales are a baleen type of whale. They are mostly coastal (as opposed to pelagic) and they feed on krill, squid, etc and school fish. They're a bit bigger than Minkes and a bit smaller that Seis but all three are similar. Link to post Share on other sites
John B 106 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 We were in Owhiti and then crossing the Firth on Tues, wish we'd seen those though. Plenty of small dolphin around, but there was seal in around Northern leading/ bean rock area on monday. Can't say I can recall seeing one of those in Akl before. Link to post Share on other sites
Marshy 30 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Yeah there was a seal cruising around Illiomoana on Sunday when we were racing... Quite cool, Never seen one before either in the gulf. But probably cus the water is so darned cold! I went for a dive on sunday and boy it took a long time for the wetsuit to take affect and warm up! Link to post Share on other sites
Grinna 2 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 NZ fur seals occasionally turn up and hang around the Waitemata. There was a fur seal living on and around A buoy for a few months a number of years ago. Very occasionally they go up the harbour for a look see. They're usually single males that are exploring after leaving the breeding colonies .... kinda like the seal version of a teenager doing an OE. Link to post Share on other sites
Marshy 30 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Yup thats the one! He quite liked the Keel on Mercenary Link to post Share on other sites
Deep Purple 512 Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 I saw a seal in the harbour just off Princes Wharf about 10 years ago while we were sailing the pre-coastal sponsors race. The whales probably were brydes. I saw this one 12 years ago at sail rock. However the sail rock one was just cruising along on the surface. The ones I saw Tuesday were only coming up to breath and then diving deep out of sight. Took me about half an hour of circling and frustration to get those two shots. Link to post Share on other sites
ScarecrowR31 8 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Came down to inner gulf last 2 Sundays past, for the week(wind on nose for Barrier). 3 Orcas on way down, probably the same seal in Tamaki Straight on the Tuesday (next to the Spirit of NZ) and the several pods of dolphin on way home. Fishing was great all trip allthough COLD. Back home near Kawau fishing no where near as good. Might explain why so much life in the inner gulf. Link to post Share on other sites
John B 106 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 This little fella? Naw , it was this one. Link to post Share on other sites
John B 106 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Motorsickle, did you get out for long? we slipped into a parallel universe or time warp or something, saw 3 or 4 boats and basically had the Firth and Coromandel to ourselves( Tiki Touring with Tony T.). Lots of discussions about heaters though. Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I thought there was a "family" of Brydes whales in the Gulf. We saw three when we first came into the Gulf with our boat. They were leaping up and falling back on their sides. Most awesome. I took a heap of pics and got nothing but splashes. Darn slow shutter speed on the digi camera. I have since learned how to take a series in succession, so next time.... Link to post Share on other sites
col j 0 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 We saw one of those whales in the middle of the night while doing 10 knots going the other way. stuck its head up and scared the sh*t out of us since we are only almost 7.3m. Used to see seals all the time at Pt Chev when i was sailing dinghys. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 ahhhhhh............and here I was thinking you were talking about the fast diminishing colony of solo mums that used to live there Link to post Share on other sites
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